Earth Protect Blog

By John Upton
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — As the deadliest fires in California history swept through leafy neighborhoods here, Kathleen Sarmento fled her home in the dark, drove to an evacuation center and began setting up a medical triage unit. Patients with burns and other severe injuries were disp...

The Los Angeles River has once again come to life, supercharged with rainwater. Freeways have flooded. And California’s Sierra Nevada mountains — the so-called “snowy mountains” — are living up to their name.
This is all thanks to the huge ocean-atmosphere event Jet Propulsion Laboratory cli...

Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a dangerous greenhouse gas, accelerating global warming. Cost-effective, proven technologies are available to cap emissions from the oil and gas industry, but federal regulators have yet to take comprehensive action.
Environmental advocates surveyin...

Climate officials are warning that this winter’s El Niño weather pattern is likely to be one of the strongest on record, bringing huge storms and a cold, wet winter for many – but nowhere near enough rainfall to reverse the disastrous long-term drought in the western US.
Any heavy rainfall will be ...

by Elias Garcia
California looms at the precipice of a water crisis unseen in the history of the region. While many commentators and politicians are quick to blame markets for over-consumption, the current management system represents anything but open markets. For years, the government ...

Hugh Beggs of Santa Rosa, Calif., searched for coins in the middle of the Russian River in Healdsburg, taking advantage of the below-normal water flow.
By Adam Nagourney and Ian Lovett NEW YORK TIMES FEBRUARY 02, 2014
LOS ANGELES — The punishing drought that has swept California and much of ...

By Joby Warrick August 17, 2014
WILLOWS, Calif. — When the winter rains failed to arrive in this Sacramento Valley town for the third straight year, farmers tightened their belts and looked to the reservoirs in the nearby hills to keep them in water through the growing season.
When those faltered,...

Drought, and the resulting shortage of melting snow, is driving the historic water shortages across much of the American West.
By Dennis Dimick, National Geographic
PUBLISHED APRIL 06, 2015
Last week, California Governor Jerry Brown announced his state’s first-ever mandatory water restricti...

Looking for water to flush his toilet, Tino Lozano pointed a garden hose at some buckets in the bare dirt of his yard. It's his daily ritual now in a community built by refugees from Oklahoma's Dust Bowl. But only a trickle came out; then a drip, then nothing more.
"There it goes," said Lozano, a 4...

By Dennis Dimick, National Geographic
PUBLISHED AUGUST 21, 2014
Aquifers provide us freshwater that makes up for surface water lost from drought-depleted lakes, rivers, and reservoirs. We are drawing down these hidden, mostly nonrenewable groundwater supplies at unsustainable rates in the western ...

The bold headline of a recent Los Angeles Times editorial by the hydrologist Jay Famiglietti starkly warned: “California has about one year of water left. Will you ration now?” The write-up quickly made the social media rounds, prompting both panic and the usual blame game: It’s because of the meat ...

Americans tend to take it for granted that when we open a tap, water will come out.
Western states have been dealing with water problems for a while, but they won't be alone for long.
As drought, flooding, and climate change restrict America's water supply, demands from population growth and energ...

By Mead Gruver, AP
CHEYENNE — California regulators could achieve savings in water use, electricity rates and greenhouse emissions by turning to Wyoming wind power to help offset the natural ups and downs of wind and solar power in their state, according to a University of Wyoming report released M...

Maria Venegas, 61, holds 20-month-old grandson Julian after giving him a bath outside. They live in Seville, California, a community in the San Joaquin Valley whose water system failed this summer but will soon be fixed. Maria rarely has running water in the house.
Farmers are guzzling ground...

As California endures its fourth year of drought, water restrictions are taking effect across the state. On April 1, Governor Jerry Brown signed an executive order implementing a mandatory 25 percent water cutback in cities and towns across the state from 2013 usage levels. It took effect June 1.
B...

The oil pipeline rupture at Refugio State Beach may have spilled as much as 105,000 gallons of crude, authorities said. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
By JULIE CART, JACK DOLAN AND DOUG SMITH
Plains Pipeline, the large Texas-based company responsible for the pipe that ruptured in Sa...

BY ELIZABETH PIERSON
MAR 19, 2015
More than 1,100 baby sea lions have washed ashore on California's beaches in the past two months.
Some believe the sea lions are victims of the warming coastal waters, which are two to six degrees Fahrenheit above average. NOAA scientists say an El Niño climate p...

31. People in Sichuan, China were sadly looking at the polluted river.
32. Mexico City is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, which has a population of 20 million people.
33. The beach of Bombay is covered with garbage.
34. Plastic bags are everywhere in the ocean, e...

The Earth is suffering from human activities. Here are 50 photos show human's "masterpiece".
1. A turtle deformed by plastic ring.
2. A seal is tangled by abandoned fishing wire, causing its neck split.
3. A sea bird is covered by oil. The only thing it can do is waiting to die.
4. I...

Project is a First in California, Model for State’s “Big Bold Goal”
PALO ALTO, Calif. (April 20, 2015) – The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will lead an effort by three companies, a utility, and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in evaluating the energy use and grid integr...